Symposia 2024
At our last annual conference, symposia brought together researchers, practitioners, and community leaders to explore topics in global mental health. These sessions featured presentations and discussions on themes such as adolescent mental health, alcohol-use disorder, and community-based interventions. Explore highlights and key takeaways from these impactful symposia below.
Also, see a full recap of the 2024 conference on the 2024 conference website!
Features and challenges in the design and analysis of trials in global mental health research
(Video)
When evaluating interventions and programs in mental health research, a vast range of different trial designs are available. The final choice of design is based on a variety of factors including, but not limited to the nature of the intervention being evaluated, the research context, the primary research question and logistical and other related considerations. In this symposium, we will use ongoing and completed mental health studies to highlight features and challenges in several trial designs, including preference trials, individually-randomized group treatment trials and stepped wedge trials with the goal to engage in a discussion with the audience around what important features to pay attention to when designing such trials.
Chair and Discussant: Elizabeth (“Liz”) Turner, Associate Professor of Biostatistics & Global Health, Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics and DGHI
| Title | Presenter |
|---|---|
| Design and analysis of preference trials in mental health research | Alyssa Platt |
| Design and analysis of individually randomized group treatment trials in mental health research | John Gallis |
| Time-varying treatment effects in mental health research | Avi Kenny |
| Addressing the Global Mental Health Care Gap for Adolescents Living with HIV: Transferrable Lessons South to North | Dorothy Dow |
Centering adolescent mental health: Intervention research to maximize resonance and impact
(video)
This symposium features three talks addressing mental health challenges among vulnerable adolescents in different global contexts. The first presentation discusses an academic-community partnership in North Carolina to improve depression treatment for Latino/a/e adolescents by developing culturally appropriate training modules for healthcare providers. The second talk evaluates a school-based resilience program in Nigeria, showing reductions in anxiety and depression among vulnerable adolescents. The third presentation explores the mental health care gap for adolescents living with HIV in Tanzania and the U.S., highlighting peer-led interventions and lessons from low-income settings that could be adapted for higher-income contexts.
Chair and Discussant: Allison McCord Stafford, Assistant Professor, Duke University School of Nursing
| Title | Presenter |
|---|---|
| An Academic-Community Partnership to Address Inequities in Depression among Latino/a/e Adolescents in North Carolina | Milani Patel, Carmen Rauh, and Allison McCord Stafford |
| Effect of a school-based resilience training program on the psychosocial health outcomes of vulnerable adolescents in Oyo State, Nigeria | Akinrinde Deborah |
| Intergenerational childhood trauma: patterns by subtype across two generations in a longitudinal Barbados cohort | Rebecca S. Hock |
| Empowering Families Coping with Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease in Kenya: A Qualitative Study to Inform a Multi-Level Psychosocial Intervention | Yvonne A. Ochieng |
Understanding alcohol use and harm-reduction interventions in Northern Tanzania
(video)
This symposium presents four talks addressing alcohol use and its associated health impacts in Tanzania. The first study evaluates a brief negotiational intervention with mobile health boosters, showing significant reductions in harmful alcohol use among emergency department patients. The second talk outlines a plan to implement this intervention regionally, adapting it to local contexts. The third study explores the relationship between depression and alcohol use, finding no mediation effect of depression but suggesting the intervention may improve both conditions over time. The final presentation highlights the growing issue of prenatal alcohol use in Tanzania, emphasizing the need for community education and pre-pregnancy interventions to address fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Chair: Catherine A. Staton, Professor, Global Emergency Medicine Innovation and Implementation (GEMINI) Research Center
Discussant: Joao Ricardo Nickenig Vissoci, Assistant Professor, GEMINI
| Title | Presenter |
|---|---|
| Effectiveness of a Brief Negotiational Intervention and Text-Based Booster to Reduce Harmful and Hazardous Alcohol Use in the Emergency Department of a Low-Resource Setting: A Pragmatic Randomized Adaptive Clinical Trial in Moshi, Tanzania | Kim Madundo |
| PRICE-Alcohol: Planning the Regional Implementation of a Culturally Adapted Brief Intervention for Alcohol for Tanzanian Emergency Departments | Ashley Phillips |
| Exploring the Mediating Effects of Depression on the Effectiveness of a Brief Negotiational Intervention in Reducing Harmful Alcohol Use in Moshi, Tanzania: A Mixed Method Study | Mia Buono & Winfrida Mwita |
| The Burden of Generational Harm due to Alcohol use in Tanzania: a mixed method study of pregnant women | Alena Pauley |
Addressing mental health in the community: Implementation of research and practice from the Southern US to the Global South
(video)
A key objective of implementation science is increasing the accessibility and adoption of evidence-based practices and programs into health systems and communities. Mental health is increasingly recognized as both a negative health outcome and as a contributor to other negative health outcomes. Correspondingly, implementation studies may address mental health in different ways, ranging from screening to incorporating mental health into other programs to directly targeting mental health as a primary outcome. Importantly, a critical cross-cutting theme is engagement with the community at all stages of implementation. In this symposium, we will highlight different ways in which implementation science is addressing mental health in community-based settings, with focus on the role of community partnering and engagement at varying stages of implementation.
Chair: Christine L Gray, Assistant Research Professor, Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research
Discussant: Susan Reif, Research Scholar, Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research
| Title | Presenter |
|---|---|
| Community informed adaptation and implementation of a mental health and substance use screening and referral process in HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) care in the US Deep South | Susan Reif |
| Implementing positive youth development and sexuality education to address health disparities in rural North Carolina | Genevieve (GV) Hunter |
| Mental Health of Indigenous Gay and Bisexual Men in Guatemala: a qualitative study | Lucia Weyer Johnson |
| Enhancing Peer Support in Medical Spaces for Substance Dependency and Harm Reduction Among LGBTQIA+ Individuals in the South | Jemm Merritt |
Child and caregiver mental health: Global perspectives on risk and resilience
(Video)
This symposium features four studies addressing the intersection of family engagement and mental health across diverse contexts. The first presentation evaluates the Family Connects postnatal nurse program, demonstrating long-term mental health benefits for parents. The second study examines the impact of prior maternal adversity on mental health during COVID-19 in rural Pakistan, finding that pre-pandemic adversity increased vulnerability but did not exacerbate mental health outcomes. The third talk highlights the importance of culturally adapting the “Coping Together” intervention for Latinx immigrant families to address acculturation gaps and strengthen family dynamics. The final study explores the challenges of inclusive education for students with autism in Brazil, emphasizing the critical role of consistent family involvement in supporting both student development and educator well-being.
Chair and Discussant: Gayane A. Baziyants, Ph.D. Candidate, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
| Title | Presenter |
|---|---|
| Promoting Long-Term Parent and Caregiver Mental Health Through Universal Postnatal Nurse Home Visiting | Gayane A. Baziyants |
| Does prior maternal adversity exacerbate the mental health effects of external shocks? Evidence from mothers and children in rural Pakistan | Kaitlin Shartle |
| Coping Together, a Brief Family-Based Intervention, for Latinx Immigrants and the Importance of Community-Defined Adaptations of Mental Health Interventions | Rafaella Zanatti |
| Challenges in inclusive education for students with autism: The critical role of family engagement in a southern Brazilian city |